Arkansas Sportsman

Elbon rye, crimson clover great for pine food plots

Thursday's column about woodland food plots prompted some feedback from people in the know about how to do it better.

The most contemplative input was from Morgan Richardson, recreational leases manager for Campbell Global, LLC. Richardson was formerly a wildlife biologist for International Paper in our part of the world. His territory included northern Grant County, where I often hunt. He wrote in an email that it will probably take two tons of lime per acre to boost the soil pH in our piney woods.

Getting that much lime into remote woodlands is problematic. A four-wheeler or UTV are about the only motorized vehicles that can traverse such rough country and all its stumps, brush and blowdowns.

"Pelletized lime may be a better option," Richardson wrote. "[It] can be applied with any fertilizer spreader."

I've used lime pellets before with excellent results. It's made from the same material as agricultural lime, but it is ground to a much finer consistency and formed into pellets with a water soluble binder. Richardson said about 500 pounds would be needed to boost the pH of a one-acre plot.

It also acts quicker, working in one month instead of four. The tradeoff is that it doesn't work as long as powdered lime.

"Its benefit will be much shorter, typically a single growing season," Richardson wrote. "The difference in the types of lime is all about surface that's in contact with the soil."

Crushed ice versus block ice is an apt comparison, he wrote. Crushed ice cools beverages down quicker but does not last as long.

Lime pellets don't blow around during application the way powdered lime does, either. The last time I spread powdered lime, I coughed it up for a week despite using a mask.

In addition to white clovers and brassicas, Richardson suggested planting elbon rye in woodland food plots along with crimson clover. They are hardy and shade tolerant and will provide enduring nutrition for deer.

The plant profile that Richardson provided described elbon rye as being extremely hardy in winter and that it produces more fall and winter forage than most other cool season cereal grains. It is widely adapted across the southern part of the country and outperforms most other cool season cereal grains on low fertility soils. It tolerates soil pH from 5.5-7.5. It also does better in well drained and sandy soils.

Another benefit, according to the profile, is that it improves your food plot's soil.

It produces a lot of organic matter in its root system as well as its stems. Shredding and disking it after it matures will add organic matter or "green manure" to your food plot.

Elbon rye roots trap nematodes, which are small microscopic animals that live in the soil and feed on roots of developing plants. Severe infestation of nematodes can stunt plants and cause them to yellow and often die prematurely. That happened to the first food plot I planted in 2008 when I was a member at East End Hunting Club.

Gardeners often plant Elbon rye to help rid their gardens of these damaging pests.

Wild turkeys love this stuff, too. Adult turkeys eat it green, but it also provides "bugging" habitat for turkey poults, and for quail. Add a good amount of chufa, and you'd have a dandy turkey plot.

Crimson clover has all of the same attributes for turkey and deer, but it does best with a pH at or near 7.

According to its plant profile, you can broadcast crimson clover at a rate of 30 pounds per acre. If you don't want to bother with a soil test, you can put 100 pounds per acre of 0-30-30 fertilizer on the plot at establishment.

If you plant crimson clover and elbon rye together, you can fertilize it with 300 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer per acre.

I used the Triple 13/pelletized lime formula in my first food plot at Old Belfast Hunting Club with a bagged mix from Pennington Seed called Rackmaster. It worked very well and continues to be productive with no additional maintenance two years after the initial planting and treatment.

Karl Hansen, a frequent correspondent from Hensley, suggested ignoring all that nonsense and planting azaleas and other ornamentals in my food plot.

"The danged things seem to draw herds of deer in my backyard year round," Hansen wrote.

Sports on 02/07/2016

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